Facts about Lotachukwu Ezeudu, kidnapped September 26, 2009

By Chike Okonkwo
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Sam Chukwu

On September 26, 2009, Lotachukwu Ezeudu, then a 19-year-old second-year accountancy student at UNN (Enugu campus) left his parents’ home, headed for the residence of then Divisional Police Officer Sam Chukwu. Lota’s parents never saw him again. Instead, they soon received a telephone call that their son had been kidnapped—along with a demand for a ransom.

Nnaemeka Chukwu, the DPO’s son and a former secondary classmate of Lotachukwu Ezeudu, had invited Lotachukwu to come to his father’s house to help inspect a laptop computer that one Desmond Chinwuba (who was living as a guest at the DPO’s home) reportedly wanted to buy.

Much earlier, Nnaemeka Chukwu had told Lotachukwu that Desmond Chinwuba and one Ernest Okeke (who was also a live-in guest at the DPO’s home) were his father’s police aides. This turned out to be a grave misinformation. In reality, Desmond and Ernest were former policemen who were arrested and charged with alleged involvement in a prior kidnap and murder case. As a result of their arrest and prosecution, they were dismissed from the police force. They obtained bail and were living in the home of DPO Sam Chukwu.

The two men were subsequently implicated in the kidnap and eventual murder of Lotachukwu Ezeudu. Ernest Okeke is in detention, undergoing trial but Desmond Chinwuba has been on the run since 2009. Ernest Okeke later confessed to police and other investigators that Desmond Chinwuba and he had murdered Lotachukwu and disposed of his remains after collecting a ransom from their victim’s family. Other suspects currently undergoing trial include Uche Moses Amajor, whose father owns Prosper Hotel in Trans Ekulu, Enugu, where investigators discovered that Lotachukwu Ezeudu was kept for some time; and Nnaemeka Chukwu, the son of the DPO. Uche Amajor was on the run for more than two years after the crime, before his hotelier father (who had claimed for a long time that he did not know where his son was) came with him and a battery of lawyers to hand him over to the police.

Prosecutors at the Ministry of Justice, Enugu State, found significant circumstantial evidence linking DPO Chukwu to the ring of criminals who kidnapped Lotachukwu Ezeudu. There was the fact that the DPO was sheltering in his residential home two sacked policemen who were accused in a series of heinous crimes. The DPO’s son, Nnaemeka Chukwu, tried to mislead investigators by claiming that he had made a call to Lotachukwu asking him not to come to the DPO’s house on the fateful day of the kidnap. This was a desperate attempt by Nnaemeka Chukwu, the DPO’s son, to establish an alibi. However, investigators determined from phone records that Nnaemeka Chukwu never made a call asking Lotachukwu not to come to the DPO’s home. Investigators also discovered that the car reportedly used to dispose of Lotachukwu’s remains was registered to the DPO.

In 2012, prosecutors felt there was enough compelling evidence to charge the DPO in Lotachukwu’s case. But the police officers who were sent to arrest the DPO reported that Mr. Chukwu escaped as they approached his home. Subsequently, the trial judge, Justice Afam Nwobodo, issued an arrest warrant for Sam Chukwu. For more than two and a half years, the DPO was a fugitive from justice. Police authorities claimed that they were not aware of his whereabouts. Wanted posters with the image of Sam Chukwu were posted in Enugu as well as in the DPO’s hometown in Aninri local government area of Enugu State.

At the end of July 2014, outgoing Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar reabsorbed the fugitive Sam Chukwu into the police force and posted him as the provost at the headquarters of the southeast zone of the police force in Umuahia. The outgoing IGP did not consult the family of Lotachukwu Ezeudu or the prosecutors at the Ministry of Justice. Nor did he explain why he gave an elevated post to a police officer who was still on the run from a court that ordered his appearance and arrest.

As if the shock of Sam Chukwu’s new post was not enough, the Police Service Commission late last year approved the promotion of the former DPO to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police. He was subsequently posted to Lagos where he is still an active member of the NPF.

Till date, Mr. Chukwu has not presented himself before Justice Nwobodo, nor have his police superiors demanded that he show up in court to answer to charges of his involvement in the kidnap and murder of Lotachukwu Ezeudu. Both former IGP Abubakar and current IGP Suleiman Abba have failed to respond to media inquiries concerning the justification for reabsorbing and promoting an officer accused masterminding a criminal ring of kidnappers and murderers.

As the father of Lotachukwu, I believe that the just, right and proper thing would be for police authorities to suspend or sack Mr. Sam Chukwu from the police and order him to face trial before the court. To allow him to remain in a police uniform, and even to promote him, is to send a disturbing message that some people are above the law and the country’s law courts.

I therefore call on Nigerian authorities to act urgently along the lines suggested in the preceding paragraph.

Sincerely,
Bona Ezeudu ([email protected])